Sunday, November 01, 2009

Al-Setinat Kuwaiti Restaurant - Hawalli




I found a new Kuwaiti restaurant this weekend. The Man has known about it for a long time, but he didn't share this info with me. Payback will be a bitch...

Al-Setinat is on Beirut Street in the building next to Boubyan Bank - kind of diagonally across from Beirut Center and not too far from Tunis Street. It is on the 1st floor.

They had the bestest gaymat. Totally yummy. I can say "bestest" in retaliation to all the spelling and grammar mistakes on their menu. Even their business card says, "Kuwaitian Foods".

The restaurant is very clean and light. It is similar in decor to Freej Swailah only you don't get a feeling of claustrophobia because the aisles are bigger.


I hate Hawalli in general, but I would definately make an exception to visit this restaurant again.


We had machboos lamb and they gave you huge chunks of really really really fresh and tender meat. I had mrubian which was a mistake. Didn't like it at all. It wasn't done the way I was used to it and none of the shrimp were de-veined (which I usually don't even consider, but this time it was really obvious).

Another difference from Freej is the service: Freej's waiters/waitresses just got off the bus from I-Hate-Everything-and-I'm-Taking-It-Out-On-You-Land (the business owner must treat them very badly for them to be so upset all the time). The guys in Setinat were very friendly and ran around the room making sure that customers had what they needed.

They have all the Kuwaiti good stuff on the menu. I will have to go back to ask for another menu because I can't remember it all now. I'm definately going back, though.

Al-Setinat's numbers are 2266557 or 2266559. AND THEY DELIVER!!!

3 comments:

Jewaira said...

I also just noticed it this past week and wondered if it was any good. We need more authentic Kuwaitian restaurants

Desert Girl said...

Yes, Kuwaitian restaurants that serve lamp.

Anonymous said...

lol to the lamp.

I visited Freej Swailah last summer and actually was enamoured with the service.

The qahwah and gaimat guy in particular was very, very kind. Maybe it was the bottle blonde and cleavage speaking, but the wait staff was very attentive. Then again, it may have been because I was visiting the restaurant with Awazim at the time, and the owner is from the tribe...

I don't know, but I had a very, very positive experience with the service there, in contrast to basically every single other place I visited over the course of 3 months. If you haven't visited in a while, maybe you could try again...maybe management has changed or they've brought in different wait staff...

Thanks for your advice, which is excellent as always.
soupprincess